Bill Hayes, a longtime star of the NBC cleaning soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” died Friday on the age of 98.
Hayes performed the character of Doug Williams on the daytime serial since 1970, 5 years after the present’s debut. He met his real-life spouse, actress Susan Seaforth, on the sequence set within the fictional Illinois city of Salem.
Hayes and Seaforth have been married in 1974. Two years later, their characters have been married on the present. The similar 12 months, the pair additionally appeared on the quilt of Time journal in a canopy story on the recognition of daytime soaps.
“I have known Bill for most of my life and he embodied the heart and soul of ‘Days of our Lives,’ ” mentioned government producer Ken Corday. “Although we are grieving and will miss him, Bill’s indelible legacy will live on in our hearts and the stories we tell, both on and off the screen.”
Hayes’ character was one of many longest-running characters on the cleaning soap, now produced by Sony Pictures TV. As pillars of the present, the couple confronted quite a few trials, starting from Doug’s deranged ex-wife, an exploding oven and quite a few serial killers.
Hayes earned two Daytime Emmy nominations for his work on the present in 1975 and 1976. Hayes and Seaforth-Hayes earned lifetime achievements award from the Daytime Emmy Awards in 2018.
Hayes’ profession started within the early days of community TV in 1949 when he starred on Olsen & Johnson’s “Fireball Fun-for-All” and later labored on Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows.”
Born in Harvey, Ill., Hayes, a singer and dancer, made his Broadway debut within the Rodgers & Hammerstein tuner “Me and Juliet” in 1953, in response to SoapCentral.com. He additionally did nationwide excursions of such stage musicals as “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Student Prince,” “Anything Goes,” “Camelot,” and “The Pajama Game,” in response to SoapCentral.
In 1956, Hayes had a pop hit together with his rendition of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett,” the track made fashionable by actor Fess Parker, who performed Crockett on the Disney-produced sequence that aired in daytime from 1954 to 1955.
By 1970, Hayes was a divorced father 5 kids. The function as a previously imprisoned con artist turned nightclub singer on “Days” proved to be that match.
In 1984, the couple stop “Days” after their characters’ airtime diminished. Seaforth Hayes ended up returning to the present in 1990 with out Hayes. Hayes made sporadic appearances in Salem and carried out on stage all through the remainder of the Nineteen Nineties. Hayes additionally earned a doctorate in schooling from West Virginia University.
In 2003, Hayes and Seaforth Hayes returned to the sequence, regardless that each characters had been presumed by viewers to be lifeless.
Michael Maloney contributed to this report.